Hit-and-run driver who killed 72-year-old Queens woman arrested: police

A hit-and-run driver who killed a 72-year-old Queens woman on her way home from work nearly five years ago is finally behind bars, police said Friday.

Naquan Young, 46, was arrested Thursday afternoon for the fatal crash on September 10, 2019 in South Richmond Hill and charged with manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, assault and hit-and-run.

After the violent crash that wrecked his Lexus and victim Gilda Lascano’s Honda SUV, Young limped away from the scene on foot and disappeared, police said.

Lascano, a cleaner at an Estée Lauder counter in Manhattan, was in the back seat of the SUV as it rolled down 126th Street around 1:30 a.m. when Young ran a red light at 111th Street and collided with her vehicle.

She died at the scene, just a block from her home, police said.

“The rear of the car they were in was completely destroyed. You could only see the frame,” neighbor Joel Rios said at the time about Lascano’s vehicle. “You could see that the silver Lexus had been hit, and it had been hit hard… The whole front was damaged.”

The 56-year-old driver of the Honda was taken to Jamaica Hospital with serious injuries but survived.

“Some people said the woman under the truck was still alive, so I wanted to see if she was breathing,” Rios said of Lascano. “I called out to her, but she didn’t respond. Her chest wasn’t moving… Our neighbors told us it was her mother and her friend was bringing her home from work.”

Lascano, who is from Ecuador, had lived in the United States for 38 years, said heartbroken relatives, who were stunned that Young had fled the scene on foot.

“Who runs away after an accident when they see someone die?” said Antonio Vargas, 47, Lascano’s son-in-law, after the fatal accident. “She was a hard-working woman. She was going to retire in a few months.”

“She was a loving person and she died like that,” he added. “She was like a mother to me for 30 years. She always defended me, was always on my side. She loved me. I’m just shocked.”

Young lives in South Ozone Park, about a mile from the crash scene. During their investigation, NYPD Accident Investigation Division detectives long believed Young was driving, but he was not officially considered a suspect until he was linked to DNA recovered from the Lexus’ airbag, a police source familiar with the case said.

By that time, he had already been arrested for drunk driving and drug possession in Pennsylvania, the source said.

The suspected hit-and-run driver has a criminal record and has been arrested six times, mostly for drug possession and grand theft, cops said. He never served time in prison. After the hit-and-run, Young was arrested in 2020 for grand theft, authorities said. That was his last arrest until Thursday.

The Queens District Attorney’s Office charged Young with manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter, and members of the NYPD’s Regional Fugitive Task Force took him into custody after his criminal case in Pennsylvania was concluded.

After a brief court hearing on Thursday afternoon, he was ordered remanded in custody without bail.